ARLINGTON, Va. -- Alex Ovechkin played for the first time this preseason for the Washington Capitals, who lost 3-1 to the Boston Bruins at Capital One Arena on Thursday.
Ovechkin, the NHL’s all-time leader with 897 goals, had been recovering from a lower-body injury that caused him to leave practice a few minutes into the first day of training camp Sept. 18. The 40-year-old left wing resumed skating last week and was cleared for full contact in practice on Monday.
He finished minus-2 in 21:07 of ice time.
Playing in his first game of the preseason was the next step for Ovechkin, who is preparing for his 21st NHL season. Washington hosts Boston again in the season opener for each team on Oct. 8 (7:30 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, TNT).
“I’m excited to see him tonight get out there and get a game under his belt, start to get some of those game reps, game touches,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said before the game. “… I think this is a good timing. [It] gives him a couple opportunities to get into games and a few practices to get ramped up for [next] Wednesday.”
Carbery had hoped Ovechkin could play two preseason games before the start of the regular season, so he could also play in Washington’s preseason finale against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
The Capitals have taken a cautious approach with Ovechkin, though, after he left on the first day of camp to make sure he was healthy for the start of the regular season.
“Obviously, it was kind of like day to day, but we don’t want to push it because it’s training camp and we still have time to get ready for regular year,” Ovechkin said Monday. “So, I’ll be ready and hope my body is going to feel good.”
Ovechkin tied for third in the NHL last season with 44 goals in 65 games, including his 895th on April 6 against the New York Islanders to surpass Wayne Gretzky for the most goals in League history. He enters this season needing three to become the first to score 900 NHL goals.
The No. 1 pick in the 2004 NHL Draft, Ovechkin is also nine games from reaching 1,500 in the League and needs 19 points to pass Joe Sakic (1,641) for 10th all-time.
